


Mirror

by Qpenguin98



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Oop, Parent Death, dead, is the answer, past speculation, where are that boys parents, who knows - Freeform, whya m i like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 13:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7465848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qpenguin98/pseuds/Qpenguin98
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So, uh, you wanna talk about it?”</p><p>Not really no he doesn’t, but, Lance is probably the one to talk to about it. He is, after all, the one who’s life he just saved.</p><p>“My mom got shot in the head when I was eleven.”</p><p>Lance sucks in a breath, and that was a super smooth way to start that conversation, Keith, good job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror

When his mother died, Keith did nothing. Instead of fighting, or running, or even screaming to take their attention away from her, he sat in the closet with a baseball bat, like she’d told him to do, and watched through the key hole.

A robbery gone wrong, people would whisper afterwards, and he didn’t know whether to believe them.

Because it had certainly seemed intentional, barging into their home, screaming at his mom things he couldn’t understand, words he’d blocked out of his memory, for better or for worse. The way they held her at gunpoint until she answered their questions.

She didn’t once look at the closet, and when they were tired of getting nothing for answer, they shot her.

He sat and stared as they took any valuables, not even bothering to take her body out of the house, and he was so so so quiet, per her last request of him.

She was so still, surrounded by her own blood, and when the intruders left, he knew that she wasn’t getting back up.

And he knew, deep down, where it stuck, that he could have done something about it.

\---

It had started as a simple, peaceful mission. Meet and greet with the people on this planet whose name was unimportant at this point. Introduce Voltron and their whole life motto, saving the universe from the Galra, all that great stuff.

The thought of an attack was at most an annoying whisper in the back of everyone’s minds.

It wasn’t even the Galra proper.

It was an old Galra prisoner who had heard about the bounty on Voltron and decided to jump at the chance.

He’d grabbed the closest paladin, Lance, and held up what looked to be a ray gun to his head.

Everyone froze.

He was saying something about giving up the lions or the boy would die, but all Keith could hear were the muffled words of his mother’s murderers.

The scene now mirrors that one.

Shiro puts his hands up gently, voice low and calming, but the man won’t budge,

Lance is trying his hardest to not look as scared as he’s feeling, but Keith sees it flash in his eyes as the gun is shoved against his temple.

Something snaps inside of Keith, and he takes a step closer. The man pushes it harder against Lance, who’s done keeping up appearances at this point.

He hears his name called from somewhere behind him, and in return he activates his bayard, blade to the ground. The man holding Lance captive looks confused and scared now, and shakily points his gun towards Keith, arm tight around Lance’s neck.

Keith bolts forward.

In the back of his mind, he hears the gun go off, and dully notes that Pidge’s shooting sounds were the most accurate.

He hits the guy square in the chest, which startles him into letting Lance go. The sword is in the guy’s stomach before Keith can even process what he’s done.

He’s maybe screaming as he pulls it out and shoves it back down again. And again and again.

Someone drags him off and he accepts willingly.

He looks at the mess of the body he’s left, the man, surrounded in his own green blood, just like his mother.

The adrenaline is wearing off and he can feel something in his left shoulder and right side.

So much for the peaceful message they were going for.

He’s ruined that just like he’s ruined his own hero complex.

“-eith, buddy, it’s over.”

That’s Lance, who he thinks is way to calm for just almost being shot.

Speaking of being shot.

“Hey, that blood’s red and definitely does not belong to the dead guy.”

He numbly feels his shoulder and looks at the fingers covered in red.

Pain radiates from both his shoulder and his side, and he does nothing but stand there and grit his teeth, accepting this as punishment.

There’s a myriad of voices surrounding him, and he just pushes through them and walks back to the ship.

\---

It’s not that bad, really. It was a clean shot through his shoulder, and a graze on his side. Both easily fixed.

He refuses help and a healing pod and opts for patching them himself.

It’s not like he hasn’t patched up his own injuries before. He lived alone, it was bound to happen at some point.

The bad part is that everyone wants to _talk_ about it.

Which, if Keith’s being real with himself, he probably should talk about it. What he did was really fucked up, even if it did save Lance. There were fifty different ways to handle that situation that didn’t end in the guy dead.

Shiro, especially, is the worst. Keith refuses to talk about it with him, whether out of spite or something else, he’s not sure.

Lance corners him in the training room one day, when his shoulder started bleeding again because he won’t let it heal.

Lance ends the training sequence for him.

“What the fuck,” Keith asks blankly.

“You’re bleeding, and you need to stop.”

“Stop what?”

“I don’t know exactly what happened back on that planet, but I know you need to let yourself rest. You haven’t been sleeping or treating your injuries right.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“Evidently not?” Lance laughs uncomfortably. “You’re kind of a huge mess right now.”

 And he’s right. There’s deep set bags under his eyes, his hair is greasy, pulled up in a ponytail so that it’s not a problem, and he’s still bleeding.

“Why exactly do you care?”

“Because, uh, you kinda went berserk trying to save my life? It’s not like an obligation thing, but I feel like I should at least check up on you, make sure you’re alright?”

Keith sits down, sighing.

“You really don’t-”

“But clearly I do because you’re not doing so hot and everyone’s really worried.”

Lance comes and sits next to him, and Keith feels this weird sense of comfort intermingled with the annoyance.

“So, uh, you wanna talk about it?”

Not really no he doesn’t, but, Lance is probably the one to talk to about it. He is, after all, the one who’s life he just saved.

“My mom got shot in the head when I was eleven.”

Lance sucks in a breath, and that was a super smooth way to start that conversation, Keith, good job.

“I was hiding in the closet watching it all and I knew while I was sitting there that I could have done something, you know? I think I knew she was going to die the whole time, and I just sat there instead of running to get help or distracting them for her to get away, but she told me to sit in the closet and stay very quiet until she came back and got me.”

Lance, in turn, is silent. He’s just staring at the floor.

“And then you, of course you would get caught like that. By some shady background guy with a gun.”

He doesn’t even take the bait for an insult.

“And it was like a mirror image. And I couldn’t just let it happen again. He wouldn’t have killed you, but it didn’t even matter, because there was a gun to your head and I needed to, I needed… You can’t expect me to just stand there and- fuck I didn’t even understand what I was doing until it was done and then it was too late and everything was so much I wanted him _dead_ so badly that it scares me because, I actually just killed someone that I didn’t need to there was so much I could’ve done where everyone would have been fine, but he’s dead! I killed someone who really didn’t need to die, just like they did to my mom and he even looked like her lying there surrounded in blood and I did that I did that to him I did that to her it’s my fault that they’re-”

Lance’s arms surround him and his throat feels so thick with all the watering his eyes are doing. He lets out this wheeze that turns into a long drawn out whine.

It hurts.

He doesn’t talk about it for a reason.

Lance is just there, and it’s nice, because he doesn’t do this. He doesn’t feel around people, let alone like this.

When he’s stopped whining about his sob story of a life, Lance looks him up and down and decides something.

He drags the both of them up.

“You’re going to medical, because I am not having you bleed out on me while we’re having a moment. We can have this bonding time in medical, but you are letting me patch that up because honestly you did kind of a shit job.”

“Fuck you,” he replies, but he’s tired, and there’s no anger behind it. He lets himself get taken to medical and allows Lance to patch him up.

This is better, he thinks to himself. He doesn’t feel like he’s harboring as much guilt.

Lance’s touch is soft on his shoulder and side, cleaning, gauze-ing, medical stuff.

He feels almost like a child with the way Lance is treating him.

As he’s putting the finishing touches on his medical job, Keith takes his hand.

“It’s softer than he expected, less calloused and rough as he thought it would be. He turns it over and runs a thumb over the lines running across.

“Uhhhh…”

“You’re the one who said we could continue having a moment, unless you want to pretend like this bonding experience didn’t happen either. I wouldn’t blame you.”

Lance looks sheepish and doesn’t say anything. Keith, however, feels uncomfortable with it having been brought up. He drops the hand.

Lance pulls him into another hug.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says “When I saw the blood, it honestly kind of freaked me out. I thought you were gonna die for a second there before I realized it wasn’t that serious.”

“Yeah,” Keith says mindlessly. He’s so tired and Lance’s shoulder feels good against his cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay too. I didn’t want to lose you.”

Lance stiffens. “You didn’t.”

“Hmm, as much as we yell at each other, I’m glad we know each other better now.”

“Yeah,” Lance says slowly, tightening an arm around him. “You should get some sleep.”

“Mmm.”

He’s almost asleep at this point and doesn’t even realize when Lance shifts so he can lay down fully. He takes the hand that’s offered to him, and the soft bushing of a thumb over his pushes him over the edge into soft, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> im so gay for voltron  
> im so ggay for keith  
> where are heis parents theyre dead thats where  
> its 5 in the morning im dead too


End file.
